Yarn clamp for tufting machine



Dec. 31, 1963 J. CARD YARN CLAMP FOR TUFTING MACHINE Original Filed Aug. 23, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

Josm/ 127m firm Dec. 31, 1963 r J. L. CARD 3,115,856

YARN CLAMP FOR TUFTING MACHINE Original Filed Aug. 25, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 5 ll 1' n 17 62 v INVENTOR. m! ,dflws (Iv/Q0 BY FUUQ/VEY I Dec. 31, 1963 J. L. CARD 3,115,856

YARN cum? FOR 'run'mc mums Original Filed Aug. 23, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN V EN TOR.

Jose/ H law/5 0m) av Dec. 31, 1963 J. CARD 3,115,856

YARN CLAMP FOR TUF TING MACHINE Original Filed Aug. 23, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IN V EN TOR.' Jon-p11 Jaws [7790 Fig 6 B Q AUTO/9N5) driven pulley 16 fixed United States Patent This invention relates to a multiple needle tufting ma-- chine and more particularly to a tufting machine of the skip-stitch variety which will form a tufted design according to a predetermined pattern, and which is an improvement over US. Patent No. 1,984,330. This application is a division of application SN. 679,824, filed August 23, 1957, now Patent No. 3,016,029, issued January 9, 1962.

Oneobject of this invention is to provide a multiple needle tufting machine which will form tufted designs in a base fabric according to the art of skip-stitching, whereby selected needles or groups of needles are withheld from penetration of the base fabric, while the remainder of the needles are permitted to pierce the base fabric upon each stroke of the needle bar, to form intricate tufted designs upon the base fabric.

A further object of this invention is to provide a multiple needle skip-stitch tufting machine having means for automatically clamping yarn to a needle which has been rendered inactive and for automatically releasing the yarn when the needle is actively reciprocating.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:

P16. 1 is a rear elevation of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a section taken along the lines 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FlG. 3 is an enlargement of the needle and needle locking mechanism in FIG.- 2, with parts broken away;

FIG. 4 is a section taken along thelines 4-4 of FIG. 5 is an enlarged elevational section of a modification of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is a section taken along the lines 6-6 of HG. 5.

Referring now to the drawings in more detail, a housing. generally designated 10, supports a main drive shaft 11. The main drive shaft 11 is driven by a motor 12 through a motor shaft 13, pulley 14, belt 15 and a to the shaft 11.

Spaced along and fixed to the main drive shaft 11 are a plurality of needle stroke eccentrics 17. The eccentrics 17 are adapted to vertically reciprocate a needle carrier 18 through the eccentric straps 19 and push rods 20. Slidably mounted within the needle carrier 13 are needle bars 21 supporting needles 22.

Hooks 23 and cutters 24 are operated in timed relation with the reciprocation of the needle carrier 18 through conventional mechanism, not shown, linked to the main drive shaft 11, in a manner Well-known to the art, in order to form tuiting in the base fabric 25.

Base fabric 25 is fed across the bed plate 26 by means of front rollers 27 and 23 and rear rollers 29 and 30. The upper rear roller 29 is driven from the main drive shaft 11 through pulley 31, belt 32, pulley 33, reduction gear box 34 and roller shaft 35. The lower rear roller is driven from the upper rear roller 29 through the pairs of meshing gears 36 and 37. The opposite end from the driven end of the roller shaft supports a pulley 38 which drives the upper front roller 28 through belt 39 and a similar pulley and roller shaft, not shown, on

3,115,856 Patented Dec. 31, 1963 2 roller 28.- Rollers 27 and 28 are simultaneously driven by meshing gears, not shown, similar to gears 36.

All the apparatus described thus far is conventional in the art of multiple needle tufting.

As best illustrated inFIG. l, the needle carrier 18 is an integral bar extending substantially horizontally the length of the machine and supported at spaced intervals by the push rods 20. Thus, when the machine is operating, the needle carrier 18 has a continuous vertical reciprocating motion. The needle bars 21 are slidably supported in guide passages 40 of the needle carrier 18 for limited vertical movement. As best disclosed in FIG. 3, a recess 41 is formed in the upper portion of each needle bar 21. Mounted on top of the needle carrier 18 is a detent plate 42 engaging the recess 41 in each needle bar 21. The length of the recess 41 is approximately equal to the needle stroke in order to provide vertical reciprocating movement of detent plate 42 within the recess 41 without reciprocating the needle bar 21.

Also adapted to engage the recess 41 is a latch pin 43 horizontally slidable in a passage 44 of the needle carrier 18, and urged into engagement with the needle bar recess 41 by means of a spring 45. The end of the latch pin 43 may be pointed as at 46 to fit within notch 47 at the bottom'of the recess 41. When the pointed end 46 engages the notch 47 in the recess 41 through the action of spring on latch pin 43, the detent plate 42 will fit snugly in the upper portion of the recess 41 to securely lock the needle bar 21 to the needle carrier 18. Pivoted or fixed to the rear end of the latch pin 43 is a connecting rod 48, which may be rigid or flexible. When the forward end of the connecting rod 48 is fixed to the rear end of the latch pin 43, as disclosed in FIGS. 2 and 3, the connecting rod 48 must be flexible to prevent the rod 48 from breaking during reciprocation of the needle carrier 18. If the forward end of the connecting rod 48 is pivotally connected to the rear end of the latch pin 43 by means, such as a pivoted joint or hinge 91 disclosed in FIG. 5, then the connecting rod 48 may be rigid or flexible. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the rear end of the connecting rod 48 is loosely attached or pivoted to the lower end of the bell crank 49 pivoted at 5%) to a portion of the solenoid rnountingv plate 51 mounted on the rear of the housing 10. The rear end of the connecting rod 48 may be slidably inserted through a mating opening in the lower end of the bell crank 49 or may thread edly engage a tapped hole in the bottom of the bell crank 49. The portion of the connecting rod 48 extending through the hole in the bell crank 49 may be threaded to receive a nut 95. The other end of the bell crank 49 is similarly provided with an opening to receive the lower end of the connecting rod 52, which has an upper and extending through a similar opening in the lower arm of a second bell crank 53 pivoted at 54 to another portion of the solenoid mounting plate 51. The ends of the cornecting rod 52 may be threaded to receive the nuts 96 and 97. v The solenoid mounting plate 51 supports a plurality of solenoids, or cleciro-magnets 55, there being one solenoid for each needle 22. The armature 56 of each solenoid 55 is pivotally linked to the other end of the bell crank 53 by means of the pin 98. Thus, it is seen that as long as all the solenoids 55 are inoperative, each of the latch pins 43 will assume the solid line position disclosed in FIG. 3, thereby causing all of the needle bars 21 to reciprocate in unison with the needle carrier 38 to form solid rows of tufting in the basefabric 25. However, if any group of solenoids 55 is electrically actuated, their respective armatures 55 will be withdrmvn into the soleniods 55 to simultaneously withdraw the latch pins 43 from their recesses 41 and disengage the corresponding needle bars 21 from the needle carrier 18, thereby pen mitting the needle bars 21 to be in a raised, inactive position as the needle carrier 18 continues to reciprocate. Titus, the electroanagnetically actuated needles 22 will cease to form tufting in their respective areas of the base fabric 25, to form a skip-stitching effect.

in order to assist the detent plate 42 in holding the needle bar 21 in a raised position when the latch pin 43 is withdrawn, a spring or resilient rod-like member 57 of novel structure, as best disclosed in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, is fixed to a portion of the presscr foot 58, encircles the needle 22 and bears against the bottom portion of the needle bar 21. The spring 57 not only serves to hold the needle bar 21 in an elevated position when inoperative, but it also provides a means for clamping the yarn 59 against the needle bar 21 when the needle bar is raised, and for unclainping the yarn 59 when the needle bar is lowered as disclosed by the dashed lines in PEG. 3. It will be noted that in the raised position of the needle bar 21, the portion of the spring 57 engaging the bottom of the needle bar is substantially flush, while in the lowered position of the needle bar, the. spring 57 is not flush with the bottom of needle bar 21, but pivots about the rear edge 6% of the needle bar acting as a fulcrum to cause the front edge or clamping end 61 of the spring 57 to spread away from the front edge of the needle bar 21 and unclamp the yarn 59. Yarn 59 may be fed to the needle 22, in any convenient manner such as from an overhead creel, not shown, and through the yarn guides 62 on the front of the machine.

By fixing the spring 57 in a lower position and by extending the front edge 61 slightly beyond the front edge of the needle bar 21 when the needle bar is in its lowered position, the front edge 61. will clamp the yarn 59 against the needle 22, instead of the bottom of the needle bar, when the needle bar is in its elevated position.

A needle bar stop 63 such as that disclosed in FIG. 2, or of any convenient construction, may be supported above the needle bar 21 to limit the upward stroke of the reciprocating needle bar.

The solenoids 55 are actuated by a pattern control means such as that disclosed in Patent No. 2,935,037 of Joseph L. Card, issued May 3, 1960. A pattern drum 65 carrying a pattern sheet as is adapted to be rotated on shaft 67 from the roller shaft 35 through top gear 37, reversing gear 68, shaft 69, pulley 7t), belt 71, pulley 72, reduction gear box '73, sprocket 74, chain '75 and sprocket '75 fixed to the shaft 67, as best disclosed in FIG. 1. Pivot-ally mounted above the pattern drum 65 is a contact finger 77 for each solenoid 55 and each needle 22. Each finger 7'7 is biased into constant engagement with the pattern sheet 66 by means of a spring 78, as disclosed in PEG. 2. When the point of any contact finger 77 engages a recess '79 in the pattern sheet, the spring 78 causes the butt S of the finger 77 to engage electrical contact st to thereby close the circuit between an external source of power, not shown, through leads 82 and 83 and cables 84 to the solenoids 55. As best disclosed in FIG. 1, recesses 79 are cut into the pattern sheet 66 where areas of no stitching are desired in the base fabric 25. The tufted areas in the base fabric 25 correspond to the solid portions of the pattern sheet 66..

A modified form of the invention is disclosed in FIGS. and 6 in which the solenoid armatures 56' are preferably pivotally connected directly to the latching pins 43 through connecting rods 48, which may or may not be flexible. In this modification, solenoid mounting bracket 51 is mounted on the rear of the machine more nearly in a horizontal plane with the needle carrier 18 than the mounting plate 51. The solenoids 55 are preferably disposed in a pair of parallel rows with the solenoids in the rear being in staggered alignment with the solenoids in the front row, in order to permit free movement of the connecting rods 48, which are pivoted to the armatures 56 of the solenoids 55' in the rear row.

The upper reciprocablc locked position of the needle carrier 18, needle bar 21, needle 22, latching pin 43, spring and connecting rod 48 and the forward position of the armature 5-5, are disclosed in solid lines in FIG. 5. The intermediate and lower reciprocable locked positions of the needle 22, the latching pin 43 and connecting rod 48' are disclosed in dashed lines in FIG. 5. Moreover, the upper, intermediate and lower unlocked positions of the latching pin 43, connecting rod 48 and armature 56 are disclosed in dashed lines in HS. 5. Because the armatures 56' are slidable in the solenoids the front ends of the connecting rods 43'. will travel in vertical lines with the reciprocating movement of the needle carrier 18. Thus the tendency of the latching pins 43 to reciprocate laterally in the needle bar recesses 41 and the tendency of the rapid vertical reciprocation of the latching pins to intermittently compress the connecting rods 18 are eliminated.

As disclosed in its unlatchcd position in FIG. 5, the latching pin 43 will have a tendency to travel in a limited are 96, because the armature 56', in its withdrawn, electie-magnetically held position, is not permitted to slid-aly reciprocate within the solenoid 55. However, the stroke of the armature 55 is great enough to prevent the latching pin 43 from re-entering the needle bar recess 41 in any vertically reciprocable position when the needle bar 21 is unlatched by the actuation of the solenoid 55.

Although the clamping spring 57 is not disclosed in FIG. 5, it is to be understood that clamping spring 57 may be employed with the modification as disclosed in FIGS. 5 and 6 in the same manner in which it performs its identical functions in the modifications of P165. 1-4.

The operation of the machine is as follows:

A pattern sheet 66 having recesses '79 cut therein to form the design desired on the base fabric 29, is mounted on the pattern drum When motor 12 is started, the needle carrier 18 is reciprocated to cause the needles 22, whose needle bars 21 are locked to the carrier 18, to penctrate the base fabric 25 fed across the bed plate 26 by the rollers 2'7, 28, 29 and 39. Operating in synchronism with the needle carrier 13 are the hook 23 and cutter 24 which hook and cut the loops formed by the reciprocating needles 22 to form tufts in the fabric 25. As the pattern drum 65 rotates, groups of contact fingers 77 engage the recesses 79 in the pattern sheet to close the electrical circuit 82, 83 and 84 through contacts 88 and ill to activate their respective solenoids 55, to automatically unlatch from the needle carrier 18 their corresponding needle bars 21 which are held in an inoperative elevated posi tion by clamping springs 57. When the electrical circuit to a selected group of solenoids 55 or 55 is closed, their armatures 56 or 55' are withdrawn through their respective linkages in FiG. 2 or HQ. 5, to pull the connecting rods 48 and 33 to the rear to withdraw the latching pins 43 from their respective needle bar recesses 41.

When a needle bar 2.1 is in elevated position, whether latched or unlatched, the free end 61 of the correspond ing spring 57 clamps the yarn 5% either against the bottom of the needle bar 21 or against the needle 22, depending on the location of the spring 57. On the downward stroke of the needle bar 23, spring 57 is depressed until the front end of the spring 61 releases the yarn 59 and permits the yarn to be carried by the needle 22 through the fabric 25. in this manner the yarn 59 is supplied when needed and held in a clamped position where it does not accumulate or snarl or tangle when the yarn is not used. It is submitted that this machine will make tufted fabrics of more intricate design, at a smaller cost and with less complicated mechanisms than those pattern tufting machines heretofore known.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the invention, \t 'hhout departing from the spirit and scope thereof, and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a sewing machine for tufting a fabric, a needle member having a longitudinal axis and a penetrating end, means for axially reciprocating said needle member between an inoperative position and an operative position for penetrating said fabric, an elongated resilient rod-like clamping member having a fixed end and a clamping end, means for fixing said fixed end to said machine laterally from said needle member, said clamping end comprising a portion encircling said needle member, means for biasing said clamping member to swing away from said penetrating end to urge said clamping end toward engagement with said needle member in inoperative position for clamping a yarn between said clamping end and said needle member, and means on said needle member for engaging and swinging said clamping member toward said penetrating end as said needle member reciprocates toward its operative position to separate said clamping end from said needle member for releasing said yarn.

2. The invention according to claim 1 in which said means on said needle member for engaging and swinging said clamping member comprises an enlarged portion on the opposite side of said clamping member from said penetrating end.

3. In a sewing machine for tufting a fabric, a needle bar having an end surface, a needle having a smaller diameter than said needle bar, and means for fixing said needle in said end surface, means for reciprocating said needle bar between an inoperative position and an operative position in which said needle penetrates said fabric, an elongated resilient rod-like clamping member having a fixed end and a clamping end, means for fixing said fixed end to said machine laterally from said needle bar, said clamping end comprising a portion encircling said needle, means for biasing said clamping member to swing about said fixed end toward said end surface in inoperative position for clamping a yarn between said clamping end and said end surface, the rcciprocable movement of said needle bar toward operative position forcing said end surface to engage and swing said clamping member in the opposite direction to separate said clamping end from said end surface for releasing said yarn.

4. In a sewing machine for turfting a fabric, a needle bar having an end surface, a needle having a smaller diameter than said needle bar, and means for fixing said needle in said end surface, means for reciprocating said needle bar between an inoperative position and an operative position in which said needle penetrates said fabric, an elongated resilient rod-like clamping member having a fixed end and a clamping end, means for fixing said fixed end to said machine laterally from said needle bar, said clamping end comprising a portion encircling said needle, means for biasing said clamping member to swing in one d' ection about said tfixed end toward said end surface to urge [said clamping end toward engagement with said needle in inoperative position for clamping a yarn between said clamping end and said needle, the reciprocable movement of said needle bar ,toward operative position causing said end surface to engage and swing said clamping member in the opposite direction to separate said clamping end from said needle for unclarnping said yarn.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 608,795 Richards Aug. 9, 1898 613,474 Richards Nov. 1, 1898 766,715 Lyons Aug. 2, 1904 1,984,330 Boyce Dec. 11, 1934 1,984,331 Boyce Dec. 11, 1934 2,496,116 Boyer Jan. 31, 1950 2,496,117 Boyer Jan. 31, 1950 2,885,985 Kells May 12, 1959 

1. IN A SEWING MACHINE FOR TUFTING A FABRIC, A NEEDLE MEMBER HAVING A LONGITUDINAL AXIS AND A PENETRATING END, MEANS FOR AXIALLY RECIPROCATING SAID NEEDLE MEMBER BETWEEN AN INOPERATIVE POSITION AND AN OPERATIVE POSITION FOR PENETRATING SAID FABRIC, AN ELONGATED RESILIENT ROD-LIKE CLAMPING MEMBER HAVING A FIXED END AND A CLAMPING END, MEANS FOR FIXING SAID FIXED END TO SAID MACHINE LATERALLY FROM SAID NEEDLE MEMBER, SAID CLAMPING END COMPRISING A PORTION ENCIRCLING SAID NEEDLE MEMBER, MEANS FOR BIASING SAID CLAMPING MEMBER TO SWING AWAY FROM SAID PENETRATING END TO URGE SAID CLAMPING END TOWARD ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID NEEDLE MEMBER IN INOPERATIVE POSITION FOR CLAMPING A YARN BETWEEN SAID CLAMPING END AND SAID NEEDLE MEMBER, AND MEANS ON SAID NEEDLE MEMBER FOR ENGAGING AND SWINGING SAID CLAMPING MEMBER TOWARD SAID PENETRATING END AS SAID NEEDLE MEMBER RECIPROCATES TOWARD ITS OPERATIVE POSITION TO SEPARATE SAID CLAMPING END FROM SAID NEEDLE MEMBER FOR RELEASING SAID YARN. 